Red Sox 7, Rangers 5 (11 inn.): Streaking Sox win fifth straight

ARLINGTON, Texas — Perhaps this is the winning streak the Red Sox have been waiting for.

Boston won its fifth consecutive game on Monday night, riding the all-around excellence of Dustin Pedroia past the Rangers 7-5 in 11 innings at Globe Life Park. It's the second time this season the Sox have put together five straight victories, and they've taken all four meetings from a Texas team that has historically proven challenging.

Boston is 7-1 in extra-inning games this season.

While the weekend sweep of Toronto showcased the star power atop the Red Sox roster, Monday's victory over the Rangers displayed its depth.

After all, a stumble here or there notwithstanding, the All-Star trio of Chris Sale, Craig Kimbrel, and Mookie Betts is more or less beyond reproach. Boston's navigation of the American League East — and its aspirations beyond — would appear to be predicated less on the performance of its stars than on the structure undergirding them.

What happens when Sale isn't the starter, when Kimbrel blows the save, when Betts is pitched around?

Andrew Benintendi hasn't had quite the rookie season New England expected of him entering the year, and he started the day on the bench with a lefty toting the hill for Texas. But after Pedroia was walked intentionally to load the bases in the 11th, Benintendi blooped an Ernesto Frieri slider over the drawn-in infield for the game-winning hit, driving in two runs to break a 5-5 tie.

The Rangers had good reason to walk Pedroia by then. Twice earlier in the game he had come up with runners on; twice he knocked them in.

In the second, he lined one over the head of shortstop Elvis Andrus and into left field to score Sam Travis and Sandy Leon. In the sixth, after a wild pitch during his at-bat broke a 2-2 tie, Pedroia stroked a base hit to center to bring home Tzu-Wei Lin and Betts for a 5-2 lead.

After being bereft of extra-base pop through much of June, Pedroia smacked three doubles in three games in Toronto. Including Monday, he now has 12 hits in 27 at-bats over the last week. He's walked nine times and driven home 11. He's raised his season batting average by 17 points, back past the .300 mark to .303.

Pedroia also made one of the standout defensive plays of his career — and that’s saying something — when he changed directions to barehand an errant Deven Marrero throw and catch Carlos Gomez rounding first with nobody out in the ninth.

The bottom of the Sox order provide the set dressing for their offensive rallies: Travis led off the second and fifth with hits, and Lin's one-out walk sparked Boston in the 11th.

The Red Sox were thus able to overcome a rare leaky night from their bullpen. For just the second time this season, Kimbrel wasn't able to lock down a save; as in the other exception back in April, a leadoff home run undid the All-Star closer. Mike Napoli jumped all over a first-pitch high fastball — give him this, the man can still hit high fastballs — and deposited it into the raucous crowd in left to tie the game at five.

Starter Rick Porcello pitched encouragingly. His final line belied the quality of his evening — three runs on 6 1/3 innings, with as many strikeouts as walks. But counter to much of his season, Porcello limited the Rangers to only three hits — albeit all for extra bases.

It's the kind of performance the Red Sox took for granted from Porcello last season; it was refreshing to see it in 2017.

Heath Hembree picked up the slack for Kimbrel, tossing two scoreless extra innings for the win.

Tim Britton writes for the Providence Journal of GateHouse Media.

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